October 16, 2017

Halloween might be Andrew’s favorite holiday and it’s a close second for me. Temperatures are dropping, you have to pick out your Halloween costume, decorate your house, get ready for trick-or-treaters, and the list goes on. I particularly like all the spooky food you can make for a Halloween party or just for fun! Below are a few new recipes and ideas you can try out to make the most of Halloween.

Cutout Cheese and Crackers

This is probably the easiest snack you can make. All you need is sliced cheese, crackers, and Halloween shaped cookie cutters. Use cookie cutters to cut different shapes out of the cheese slices. I picked Colby Jack and Cheddar cheese but you can use any flavor of sliced cheese. Pair with crackers and you have a quick snack that is still Halloween themed.

I had fun making these! If you want to take the time to make homemade dough that is perfectly fine but I wanted to go the easy route with store bought pizza dough. It works well, tastes great, and takes a lot less time to make these if you’re on a time crunch. If you have kids they probably want to eat fast so they can start trick-or-treating sooner or they don’t want to eat at all so they have plenty of room to fill up on candy later (that’s what I would do :)).

The breadsticks have great flavor from the garlic and Italian seasoning, and are perfectly cheesy. You can use fresh garlic or garlic powder, whatever you have on hand and is most convenient for you. You can also spice these up by using additional seasonings; rosemary, onion salt, oregano, etc. I chose to use mozzarella cheese but you could use any shredded cheese flavor or blend you want and really make them your own.

It’s a quick and easy snack or appetizer for Halloween! Who doesn’t love breadsticks and dipping sauce?

This is such a universal recipe, which is what makes it so great! Keeping with the Halloween theme, I wanted to incorporate spiders into the menu. Why not make pizzas with spiders made from olives? You only need a few ingredients to make these and they are very time friendly. Grab a mini pizza on the go or eat them while walking around the neighborhood collecting candy. They are not messy at all so they make a great finger food.

The reason I say these are universal is because you can change the toppings to whatever meets your needs. If your picky eater doesn’t want olives, make a jack-o-lantern face with sausage or arrange the cheese in the shape of a ghost – the possibilities are endless! I know, I know, we can’t have Halloween year round but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy these pizzas year round. Simply change the toppings and make mini pepperoni pizzas or mini Hawaiian pizzas.

This one is definitely for the kids and those that aren’t picky about the color of their food! Don’t get me wrong, I love mac & cheese and can’t imagine changing an already good thing, but…this is a fun spin on a classic dish! I made homemade mac & cheese instead of using a box recipe. The reason for this is I wanted the cheese sauce to be white in color so it would be a very vibrant green when I added the green food coloring.

It was cheesy, gooey, creamy and oh-so-delicious. The perfect comfort food! If you have a festive bowl or extra cauldron around (who doesn’t this time of year?) it makes a fun serving dish at a party.

Candy Corn Parfait

These are not only healthy and refreshing, but something both kids and adults can enjoy. I personally like the healthy side of this “treat”. With all the candy and sweets you tend to eat around the holidays it’s nice to have a lighter / healthier option.

You want to use fruit that will make the parfait look like candy corn. I used pineapple chunks on the bottom, mandarin oranges in the middle, and vanilla yogurt on top. You could also use a mango, cantaloupe, a nectarine, an orange, a peach, or bananas. Really any orange and yellow fruit paired with yogurt will work. For presentation purposes, I assembled the parfait in a wine glass. This allows you to see the “candy corn” and it’s a little more fun than using a traditional bowl.

Rice Krispie Mummies

These are a great dessert option for any Halloween party but also work well as a snack. Plus they are fairly easy to make so even the kids can help, which makes it a bit more fun for them. You need a store bought box of Rice Krispie bars (8 bars) or you can make your own homemade Rice Krispie bars, one bag of white chocolate chips or vanilla almond bark, and candy eyes.

Melt the chocolate chips or almond bark.

Dip each Rice Krispie bar until coated on all sides. Don’t worry about getting the bottom fully coated as long as the top and sides are coated.

Place on a wax paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate for about 5 minutes, until the chocolate has hardened.

Add the remaining chocolate to a Ziploc bag and snip one of the corners – a very small snip.

Drizzle the chocolate across the bars to resemble mummy wrapping.

Place 2 eyes on each bar.

Refrigerate for another 5 minutes to make sure all the chocolate has hardened.

I think these are delicious! You could also use brownie squares in place of, or in addition to, Rice Krispie bars for an alternative option.

If you are looking for other Halloween themed food Festival Foods has many great store bought or homemade options available, such as: